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The best oil spill cleanup tool: political will

20

May

The best oil spill cleanup tool: political will

By Luis Hestres

Nick Santos was formerly a policy fellow with 1Sky and now heads up consumer information group The Environmental Consumer in
California. The author's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the 1Sky
campaign.-- Luis

We're a month into the biggest oil spill in decades with no
signs ahead of true abatement, cleanup, or even admission of guilt from the
involved parties. This spill involves three main categories of problems to solve -- technological,
social, and governmental -- in order to clean up this mess and prevent
future ones like it.

The technological problem currently captures most of the
attention as efforts like the failed containment dome, the "junk
shot", the
cleanup dream team, and even centrifuges are attempted
or advocated. Meanwhile, BP has been championing its success with the Riser
Insertion Tube which is currently siphoning off 2,000 gallons a day (of a
low end estimate of 200,000). The technological problem only captures the short
term difficulties though. Unlike the technological problem, we may be solving
the social problems of this spill for decades. There is talk of an entire
generation of industry being lost on the Gulf Coast with around
100,000 jobs at risk from this spill.

These social problems naturally feed directly into the
governmental problem of how to protect current and future citizens. There is
talk of programs to address the problems created by this mess, but what is
really needed is prevention of future "accidents." Only days before
the spill, President Obama had proposed opening the continental shelf to
drilling for the first time in decades. He has since backed down from that
stance. Similarly, governors such as Charlie Crist
(I-FL) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) who were formerly in
favor of offshore drilling in their states are using this spill
as an opportunity to publicly change their minds. We're also seeing more moves by
senators of coastal states to limit or prohibit drilling off their shores.
This is the good news in government right now, but we must hope these commitments
last even once the public's attention is turned from the current spill.

The bad news in government also comes from the Senate where
Republicans, led by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK - of Dirty Air
Act fame) and James Inhofe (R-OK) are blocking an
increase in the liability limit for oil companies when a spill occurs.
Senator Inhofe claims, outrageously, that an increase in the liability cap from
the current, paltry $75 million dollars per incident, to $10 billion dollars
(which Majority Leader Harry Reid calls "inadequate"), "singles
out BP" and "shuts out independent producers."

I call shenanigans. I understand that a primary tenet of the
Republican (and Democratic) platform is to protect business, but that must be
bound by those businesses being legitimate. Legitimate business practices do
not include creating public hazards, endangering jobs, and creating ecological
disasters that will last for decades. BP has handled this mess like the
negligent, shady business it is: faulting
others, cutting
corners, and obfuscating
its role. Yet they remain protected by a liability cap of only $75 million
dollars. In contrast, if an individual were to kill 11 people, send massive
debris into the ocean, dump toxic chemicals into the ocean, and endanger the
jobs of thousands of people, they would be subject to bankrupting fines and
significant prison terms. BP gets off easier because it has senators on its
side. That's just wrong.

I once had a teacher who would tell students that saying
sorry "is a commitment to change." BP is acting like it is saying
sorry in all of its PR, but is passing the buck and making no commitment behind
the scenes. A truly sorry BP would admit guilt and ask the other companies to
join them in that admission. A truly sorry BP would request an audit of all of
its existing rigs and pay for any repairs necessary. A truly sorry BP would ask
senators to raise the liability cap as high as they deemed necessary,
retroactive to before this spill began. A truly sorry BP would then put more
money than the liability cap into a fund managed by a third party so that Gulf
Coast residents can obtain legitimate claims related to their economic,
cultural and environmental quality. A truly sorry BP would then promise to
underwrite all government cleanup efforts and pledge to monitor and clean up
any significant amount of oil in the ocean resulting from their spill.

If BP did these things, I might believe that they won't just
turn their back on the country and the spill the moment they are out of the
public eye. This strategy won't bankrupt BP -- it'll merely set their profits
back a bit, and it's better than they deserve.